# Session S02 > [!overview] > [campaign:: [[Call of Cthulhu - Dark Carnival|Dark Carnival]]] > [session:: S02] > [prev:: [[2024-04-05_S01]]] > [next:: [[2024-04-19_S03]]] > [session date:: 2024-04-12] > [campaign date:: 1928-05-19, 1928-05-20] > [my pc:: [[Dr. Clara Monroe]]] > [dm:: [[kailiblue|Kaili]]] > [player:: [[Leah Ferguson|Leah]], [[Zirsoa]], [[itsarborday|Arbor]]] > [pcs:: [[Dr. Clara Monroe]], [[John Ashford]], [[Edgar Walton]]] > [active npc:: ] > [discussed npc:: ] > [active locations:: ] > [discussed locations:: ] > > --- > > (tldr:: Summary.) ## Notes - The door swings open and two other carnival staff members enter… but not two more goons. - It's [[Nathaniel Tucker Wrathby]] and [[Edgar Walton]]. - "Get them! They're crazy." about [[Todd McGuire]] and [[Elsie Crouch]] to [[Edgar Walton]]. - John pulls his gun out, to stop the fighting. They back themselves into the corner. - Clara crawls backwards away from the hole, still holding the shovel. - John cuffs [[Todd McGuire]], and has [[Edgar Walton]] tie up [[Elsie Crouch]]. - They head to [[Nathaniel Tucker Wrathby]]'s office, and through the faregrounds, the place is in full swing. - A proper staff area. - [[John Ashford]] calls [[Henry Winchester]] to send a car to pick them up. - [[John Ashford]] begins to question them while Clara and Edger watch. - They seem very closed off, but John is able to persuade them into more useful information. - It's worse than booze that's down there in the tunnel… - Why are Todd and Elsie okay, when others aren't… - Elsie is smiling and can't stop giggling. - Todd isn't concerned with the well-being of others - John separates the two - Elsie questioned by Clara and Edger - Obey the beings… - She seems interested in becoming one of them - Edger asks who killed Kent… she did. She did because he chose Lucy over her… - Edger and Clara try to talk her down from her delusions… and she calms - Elsie says she's been feeding people to the monsters… - Elsie doesn't believe the monsters are real… that it's the mind trying to protect itself from whatever is happening here. A shared mass delusion? She must have spooked herself… - John questions Todd with [[Nathaniel Tucker Wrathby]] - Todd says Elsie has a mental health history… - Todd and Elsie had hit it off in the tunnels - Todd says nothing is living in the tunnels. [[Nathaniel Tucker Wrathby]] hasn't reported the tunnels existing because the city would shut them down… - He says he has to feed Elsie's delusions, is worried she'd stab him otherwise. - John can tell he hasn't said the full truth… calls him on it. - Elsie had it out for [[Lucy Pringle]] because she was in love with [[Kent Howard]] - Had taken her below the river tunnels, and had chained her to a wall and left her there - Lucy was still alive down there… had Elsie been bringing her food? - One day, Todd brought food down to Lucy. The chains were broken and there was blood everywhere. "They" got her… "They needed another one…" and Elsie had taken [[Freddie Pendergast]] to sustain them another one. At that point, Todd knew he was in too deep. - Todd tells [[Nathaniel Tucker Wrathby]] he needs to shut the carnival down tonight. There may be someone trapped in the tunnels below; they need to do a search. - "Do what you do for the sake of the law, but if the tunnels go wide spread, they city will shut this place down. A lot of people will be hurt by that." Wants him to leave the tunnels out of it… - Officers come to pick up Elsie - Dr. Clara recommends that Elsie may not be fit for processing, and that if they take her to the Asylum, have them call for [[Dr. Luke Ptolmey]] - John requests more guns - John » his service weapon - Edger » a rifle - Dr. Clara » a spare gun - The fairgrounds are emptied out for them to investigate - Clara asks [[Nathaniel Tucker Wrathby]] for a lantern or flashlights - He gives her an oil lantern - John has Todd bring them down to the tunnels via the Tunnel of Terror - 20 carts; 10 go through at a time. There's a split at the end into a hold room. He suspects that this is how Freddie was separated from the group. - We walk through the staff area and enter the hold room that has the door. - John continues to hold onto Todd, and has Edger move the wood out of the way to access the tunnels. - Lucy had been down in the tunnels 3–4 weeks after she had gone missing - Todd had never seen Freddie… wanted nothing to do with that - Dr. Clara listens while Edger works, but hears nothing in the tunnels (with an extreme success) - John pushes Todd through the tunnel first, and looks around… - Tunnel is carved rock, holds old carnival equipment… looks like something Wrathby would be aware of - We hear then see water, but that's the entrance by the river - We pass through a junction further down, with a hole in the roof (i.e. the tent) - We continue straight and see a large metal door… - it looks different to everyone - John = looks like a solitary confinement door in a jail - Clara = looks like a solitary confinement door in an asylum - Edger = looks like a bank vault door - The door is a metal like nothing they've ever seen before. Not on the periodic table. Runes and markings, like Egyptian hieroglyphs. - Two slots in the centre - 1. Small and circular - Elsie would have it on her - 2. A more traditional keyhole - Someone stole it » an inspector working on this case (Krantz) - Elsie says the people who live here built it - John traces the symbols onto his notepad… and he feels like he understands these somehow… but the meaning is lost in time and evolution. - John suggests going to reconvene and getting information from Krantz - Before they go… Clara hears chains from behind the door, and then a cry for help much further down - As Clara listens, John sees something skulking in the darkness - John points his gun at it… - Yellow eyes, a lumbering body, hunched over humanoid - John starts pushing us back towards the start of the tunnel, while Clara holds the lantern up - Edgar heads towards the river entrance - Todd goes sprinting past Edgar and tries to knock him down on his way out… but he falls instead - One of the ghouls lunges at John and scratches him with his claws - The other ghouls move towards Todd and Edgar - Clara notices that the ghouls hiss at the light - Edgar gets to the edge of the river, and holds his shotgun out - John runs past Clara and Todd, gun still out - One of the ghouls attacks Todd, and pins him down into the cave water, taking a bite out of Todd - He's still conscious, but grapple and pinned - Edgar shoots at the ghoul pointblank, killing it - Edgar grabs Todd and drags him out - One of the ghouls attacks Clara, but she dodges (extreme success) and it bashes the wall above her instead - She runs out to the mouth of the cave, still holding the lantern for her companions - We make it out of the river entrance, and find ourselves on the other side of the river - We find an old logging road to head back into town - At this point, John uncuffs Todd since he's not a threat anymore - A car slows down, and John basically commandeers it to get to a hospital - We go directly to the hospital for treatment - In the early morning, we've been patched up (regain HP) - [[Henry Winchester]] comes to discuss what happened… - They believe that Freddie may still be down there - [[Elsie Crouch]] has the one key, [[James Krantz]] has the other - [[James Krantz]] is at the [[Butler Insane Asylum]] - Elsie confessed to killing Kent, and that Lucy and Freddie are down there - The captain left us an unmarked car - The man who picked up us up is still here… - "You were at the carnival, weren't you?" - It's [[Thomas Gentry]], [[Kent Howard]]'s former roommate and friend - Kent still believed he could find Lucy - Thought her disappearance was purposeful - The pocketwatch was significant… It was Lucy's (and we saw it on [[Elsie Crouch]]) - It was an artifact, significant to Lucy's family history (people who first settled here) - Which is a significant thing to find… - Kent was rambling about some great worm - That's where they were bringing her - He gives us his business card (he's a painter) - "Oh. The worm. He called it a Cthonian." - Kent would yell about them in the asylum, but it means nothing - John is considering splitting up, to cover more ground - [[Butler Insane Asylum]] » [[Dr. Clara Monroe]] - [[Elsie Crouch]]'s items are being dropped off there - [[James Krantz]] is there, as would his items - [[Lucy Pringle]]'s family » [[John Ashford]] - Indigenous tribe » [[Edgar Walton]]